"9-8-6 malignant prime sighted. Positive viscon on Sapphire. All local units, reform and converge on―"

The soldier who was signalling me out to Overwatch behind cover could not deliver its full report before I rushed up and beat it to a stress-relieving heap before sticking my blade straight through its mask. I had barely made it around the block from the harbour master's building and I had already found myself surrounded by an invading squad of soldiers. I had managed to undermine them through means of magic and outrageous acrobatics, the latter being mostly a subversive experiment to see if flipping around and over them could confuse their implanted optics. It certainly messed with them, but I realised their automatic solution to things they weren't computed to understand was just to shoot blindly in my direction.

Regardless, my first hurdle had been overcome by relinquishing those soldiers, but I could not rid the town of all of them by myself. They were everywhere now, and I knew even more were on the way. The Combine were not here to lose.

I ran past several dead bodies of residents lying outside, and I harrowingly saw even fewer Combine husks among them. I truly saw the very real possibility that this day was Red Bay's last. I needed to level the playing field as fast as possible to subvert that fate.

Sooner than later, I eventually reached the open plaza by the east gate, which had now been converted into a landing zone for dropships. Two more had already landed and were already unloading their troops while their automatic pulse cannons fired upon anything that moved, forcing me to keep to the wall of the small office building I was next to. Being that our whole world was crashing down on us, I decided that siphoning energy through the building's power box was an absolute necessity in repelling these apathetic monsters; even if it would come at the cost of irreparably damaging the building's internal lines.

After a dramatic but brief shower of sparks after touching the power box with my staff, the spearhead crackled with contained discharge, creating a familiar static in the air strong enough to make my fur stand as I whirled out from my cover and unleashed powerful arks of electricity at the dropship's cannons, blowing them all out effortlessly. Now that they were rendered relatively harmless, I unleashed the remaining power onto the remaining soldiers who hadn't yet charged into town and out of my line of fire. Managing to vanquish seven out of twelve wasn't a terrible result, but each one that got away meant potential death for more of our people.

I was essentially behind enemy lines now as the Combine seized control of the southeastern end of Red Bay, pushing slowly but brutally passed what remained of our defences. That accursed gunship was still picking us off from the air, forcing us to remain underneath cover while the Combine advanced to flush us out. There was one valiant rebel on a rooftop trying to take down the gunship with a reclaimed rocket launcher, but the gunship was now keen on our menial air defence and shot down every rocket that was hurled at it―which wasn't many.

While the dropships began to fly off having done their function, that at least provided me with the brief opening to run out into the open to surprise the soldiers from behind. Running out onto Main Street, which was now filled with fires and debris all over the place, I sacked a hefty armful of soldiers who were trying to coordinate against rebels shooting out from the buildings above them. The soldiers further up the advancing line were not oblivious to their comrades' signals going out one by one, and switched their priorities once they realised it was me. Having earned the reputation I had made for myself in the Combine's eye, I perhaps should have accounted for all of them to focus on me in particular.

I deployed my shield, which was enhanced greatly by the syphoned power, but I found myself getting pushed into a tight corner as all the surrounding soldiers fired relentlessly upon me, a good eight of them, making plaster and dust rain around me as their pulse fire pelted the wall behind me. Before the hot water I had fallen into could reach a fatal boiling point, a huge, beastly figure then burst onto the scene and jumped the soldiers from behind a mound of debris after the soldiers diverted their whole attention onto me. Aaron utterly pulverised the troops with his bare hands with merciless swings of his large fists, screaming with profound rage that harkened back to the first time I had seen him fight in the outland depot, really putting his size and mass to full use.

"Aaron?!" I exclaimed in surprise, collapsing my shield in his wake after he successfully waylaid the suppressing squad. He spared a look at me after punching the life-sustaining mask of the last soldier straight off its leathery mangled face before looking at me with an intimidating intensity.

"Lassie!" he heaved. "It's not safe here! We need to get everyone while we still…oh CRIKEY!" Just then, the gunship that had been prowling the skies above the town circled to our side again and unloaded a barrage of heavy pulse fire onto the street towards Aaron. He would have been shredded to bits had I not pushed him away with a harmless discharging blast from my staff, but he did not survive unscathed, as the top portion of his right arm had been horribly grazed.

He cried out in turmoil as he rolled to a stop on the sidewalk and bumped against a building, clutching his wounded arm as the gunship went around for another loop around the bay area, releasing an almost taunting mechanical spurt. "Aaron!" I yelled, leaping across the street to his side. I gasped in horror to see his bulky upper bicep scorched with a giant tear that ran straight through it, missing a large chunk of flesh. I could tell before Aaron was able to tolerate an excessive amount of physical punishment, but he could not withstand a gunship's barrage any more than anyone else clearly.

I knelt beside him and desperately tried to soothe him as he writhed in so much pain I would have started crying given a few more moments. "Don't…bother with me…lassie," Aaron grunted, gritting his teeth in agony. "Get out of here. Save yourself…"

"I can't. I'm going to stop this," I declared. Aaron hadn't the time, or the energy honestly, to refute me as a round of more soldiers began coming out of the woodwork, beginning to retake the street. I deployed my shield again around the two of us as the Combine trained their fire on us once more. Rebels too began to run out of their buildings to help us by returning fire, and it worked for a short time, but more soldiers appeared on the scene moments later, forcing another retreat―those who hadn't been killed trying to flee yet anyway.

Once again, I was pinned down by an onslaught of soldiers as I tried to shield my wounded friend from this next flurry of bullets and pulse fire. "Get out of here, you stubborn girl! I'm a goner!" Aaron billowed at me with brutal frustration.

"I'm never leaving you behind!" I yelled back venomously, quickly getting overwhelmed by my attackers as they were converging in all around us. I refused to admit it, but I honestly couldn't see a way out. I could only perform one spell at a time, and dropping the shield even for a second would mean the instant end for me and Aaron. I truly was stripped of ideas at that harrowing moment.

Just when I began to fear that I was on the eve of the instant when I would meet the All-in-One, flashes of bright green began erupting to my left, and another surprise incursion suddenly challenged the soldiers. I did not waste a second; as soon as they turned their heads, I collapsed the shield and unleashed bright arks of electricity straight into the metal plates in their helmets, making them all fold in on themselves as their lifeless bodies dropped to the ground along with their weapons.

I then heard familiar whinnying coursing loudly down by the turn in the road that led towards the edifice along with fierce Vortigese battle cries as the buildings flashed with green light. "Cherrrrr! Ga-la-lunnnnnngg! Gjet-chalinggg-cherrrr!" The body of a soldier then suddenly flew down the street having been surged with a beam of green energy, which made the body sizzle once it rolled to a stop.

Much to my total amazement, I saw Dahlia trotting down the street with Ben and Jerry on her back, neighing with determination and triumph. I beamed with joy at the sight of my vortigaunt and equine friends, but I did not leave Aaron's side, and I made it the subject of dire attendance by the time they cantered up to us.

"Help him! He's badly hurt!" I begged. The two vortigaunts quickly hopped off Dahlia and ran over to Aaron's side. Jerry immediately doused him in a cloak of vortal energy from his hand meant to numb Aaron's pain, which it did rather nicely.

"The Aaron Beuford requires extensive medical care," Jerry deduced. "Care that we do not have at our disposal during this time of reckoning."

"We will bring him to a safer place," Ben affirmed to his mutual before looking at me. "However, you and your impetuous friend must carry on to your ship."

"But what of you? I can't leave him!"

"Leave him to us," Ben insisted, gripping my shoulder. "Our kin are on their way to assist as we speak. Your friend here made our journey to Red Bay quicker thanks to her unwillingness to leave you behind."

I looked up at Dahlia, who was trotting anxiously by the curb, knickering just as nervously, but she wouldn't break eye contact with me once we made it. I couldn't help but smile as I stood up to coddle her muzzle. "You're in so much trouble for this, you know," I told her with a peck on her nose, making her chuff in satisfaction.

Despite my affectionate gratitude, having Dahlia in the town during the invasion was still plenty terrible. The thought of anything happening to her made my stomach turn, but she was here now, and getting to the Cloud Runner would be much quicker now, especially since it was a straight shot to it being that it was sheltered just on the far end of the street. There was finally a light breaching through this cloak of bleakness.

Seeing that the road ahead was mostly devoid of conflict, at least at present, I was about to climb up on Dahlia's saddle when I began to hear a series of unsettling thumping sounds. They were slightly hard to make out thanks to the gunship flying around in the distance and the sound of nearby gunfire, but I was soon able to feel them through the earth itself. They became more booming and resounding as something truly massive was approaching us from the east gate area. The vortigaunts sensed it too, and their stoic expressions turned grave.

I looked over a restless Dahlia towards the east gate past the plaza sixty metres away and gawked in trepidation to see something else emerge onto the battlefield. A tan, three-story-tall behemoth with a crab-like shell for a body made its debut as it used its three spindly and stilted legs for locomotion. I had seen one of these things before, crossing an intersection in City Three when infiltrating the city as Dejon's 'detainee'. The synth itself was terrifying enough, but the large artillery cannon that was swaying around underneath its body served as the greatest immediate threat to our lives.

"STRIDER!" a few rebels up on the rooftops exclaimed in terror, moments before the giant cannon began to charge up, releasing a deafening high-pitched whirring sound as the light around the strider whole began to bend inward around the cannon's glowing muzzle before firing a concentrated beam of immeasurably destructive energy at the rooftop where a few rebels still were, and half of the entire building had exploded into thousands of fast-flying chunks of debris.

I brusquely screamed as I instantly cast a massive shield around all of us, protecting us from all the fiery debris that rained down on us. Dahlia kicked and neighed in complete horror, though did not dare to leave my side as the worst of the debris settled. I did not wait for the dust to clear, for the strider was still coming down the street, and we needed to move. I leapt up on Dahlia and spurred her sides with no hesitation, and she took off in the Cloud Runner's direction without protest.

"You must breathe it life, Krystal!" Ben hollered desperately as we fled, literally leaving them in the dust. I did not attempt to figure out what he said, for I was too preoccupied trying to keep Dahlia focused as she sprinted over the freshly made heap of debris from the former building before sprinting down the street with vigorous renew that only the sensation of running from a giant monster could stir in you.

The strider appeared to have good eyesight because it began to fire its own smaller gyrating pulse cannon down the street at us. It had a slow firing rate, but its shots were massive and obliterated everything around us. I could practically feel the heat of each one soaring past us.

Dahlia was running for her life at this point as heavy pulse bolts flew passed us, making the ground and the walls around us burst. She whinnied loudly and fearfully as she ran, trampling over a few soldiers who were trying to cover more ground. I did my best to block out the hounding gun blasts and tried to keep her calm to the best of my abilities, telepathically whispering that all would be all right. It wasn't quite convincing to her―it hardly was for me either―but Dahlia had been able to remain focused, keeping her eyes only on the road ahead.

Whizzing past the marina, which was speckled with fires, I spared a thieving glance back to see the strider pursuing us, treading over the debris of the destroyed corner building it created. It creaked and groaned with each step, releasing a sort of techno wail that wasn't friendly to my ears. I could see sudden streaks of vortal discharge being hurled upward at it from around the intersection, leading me to believe that the rest of the vortigaunts from the Sanctum had, at last, arrived to help.

The strider was irritated by their attacks and temporarily differed its attention to taking them out, even climbing its long back legs up along the side of the building to give it a better angle. I prayed that all of my friends I had left behind to contend with the strider would be all right. I was in no position to help them in my present form; I needed to get my wings back right now.

We had finally made it to the Cloud Runner's warehouse, which fortunately seemed devoid of Combine units. The area overall looked to be a section of town the Combine hadn't yet swept through, although I feared that wouldn't remain so for much longer. Knowing that Dahlia received so much more than she bargained for, I was motioning to jump off her back while she was still running.

"All right, girl, get away from here! Go, go, go!" I instructed her vehemently, dissuading her natural instinct to slow after sensing that I was about to hop off. Dahlia neighed again as I jumped before the designated warehouse, tumbling to a messy stop along the sidewalk while Dahlia maintained her run. The sound of Dahlia's hooves beating against the pavement grew more distant as she fled town along with many other rebels running in the same direction. I prayed that she would commit to my firm instruction without defiance this time.

I rolled over on my stomach, a little dazed by the tumble as I quickly crawled over to reach my staff which had landed several feet in front of me on the sidewalk. I then immediately ran for the warehouse's now-unguarded service door, and I was seconds away from bursting through before I was stopped by a telepathic disturbance nearby before I could grip the handle. Even amongst all of the chaos around town, from the sounds of combat to the synths roaring and groaning in the distance, something distinct suddenly pinged in my head. It was Robert Bushnell, and he was in grave peril.

I sensed him nearby, so I temporarily suspended my vital entry into the warehouse and ran to his aid. I sensed that he was around the block somewhere, so there was no excuse for me to ignore his danger (not that I would ever have one). His harrowing cries for help were now loud enough to leave my head and grace my ears, which forced me to sprint even faster to his position, I hopped over the street and ran around the corner of one of the older brick-built marina buildings.

I made a left turn around a small alleyway, which was reverberating Rob's audible distress to an unbearable level, where I quickly came to the alley's end to find Rob tussling with a headcrab.

He yelped and struggled frantically to get it off as it tried crawling up his back, trying to pound it against the wall, but the parasite was hellbent on coupling with Rob's head. It was mere moments away from completely consuming his head and latching onto his shoulders until I intervened at the last moment, digging my clawed nails straight through the creature's body, forcing it to let go as I threw it against the wall.

I didn't even wait for it to plop to the ground before I deployed my blade and slashed it down with an anxious shout, cutting the headcrab into two pieces straight down the middle. I then immediately turned to Rob, who was still on the ground and hyperventilating with his back against the wall. I got down in front of him and grabbed his shoulders. "Robert? Are you okay?"

He didn't respond; his eyes were so wide with shock he didn't even fully register that I was there. "Rob!" I yelled, fuelled by a rising fear that I was starting to lose control over, which seemed to wake him, making him blink fiercely as he began to recognise me.

"Krystal…!" he gasped, touching the sides of his head before noting the two pieces of headcrab close by, lying in a pool of oozing yellow blood. "Oh my God… You…saved me…"

"Krazoa be praised I did, Rob," I said, cupping his head. I was about to tear up a bit until the roar of the strider down the street rocked the air with the sounds of more cannon fire, followed by another harrowing explosion that likely resulted in another building being reduced to rubble.

"We don't have any more time, come on!" I exclaimed, helping him to his feet before I ran away with him close to me.

I soon led him back to the warehouse with the sight of the strider still trying to relinquish the vortigaunt pests that were taking shots at it with bolts of vortal energy. "We're all gonna die today, aren't we…?" Rob said, dismayed and disheartened by the sights and sounds of certain doom closing in on us. If a headcrab wouldn't do him in, the Combine sure would.

"Don't lose hope, Rob," I ordered, not oblivious to the presence of soldiers closing in on the area. "Our salvation is in here!"

I swiftly kicked the door open before we both ran inside to find the Cloud Runner still suspended a few feet off the ground by a few industrial jacks. A few cables were running into maintenance ports on the side of her haul, which were connected to two mobile generators meant to gauge the conductive organic adhesives applied to the plasma engine. The time for diagnostic testing was well passed now.

"What?" Rob questioned, looking at my Arwing desperately. "But they've been saying it's not ready to fly yet!"

"It is now," I refuted authoritatively. "Come on, you and I are going to get her flying again!"

"Wha… What's that supposed to me―?!"

The whole building suddenly rocked dreadfully as another explosion went off outside, making the metal ceiling tremble and casting the repair bay in a glow of orange light from the windows before fading.

"It means you're safer in it than you are out there. Now come!" I insisted, already climbing up the ladder propped up against the starboard wing.

"I think you're right about that!" Rob agreed, hastily climbing up the ladder as I began to manually dislodge the airtight canopy. The hydraulic pistons moved far too slowly for my liking, so I slinked my way into the pilot's seat after retracting my staff in clipping it back onto my belt. Rob hopped right into the passenger's space right behind me as I reached up to pull the canopy back down with its fixed hand grips and sealed it back up tight around the cockpit.

"Strap in nice and tightly, Rob, we are unfortunately conducting a test flight. Be ready for anything," I forewarned, doing the same as him and strapping myself in.

"I hope this thing has ejector seats at least!" Rob said.

"She does," I confirmed, already putting my targeting headset back on for extra readiness. I immediately reached for the ignition dial beside my holo-graphic projector dashboard and turned it quickly. The Cloud Runner began to hum to life, but the power output was still insufficient. My holo-graphic dashboard could barely flicker to life before the power cut back out.

"Come on, love, I need you to rise to the occasion…" I muttered patiently, turning again for another try. The same sputtering occurred again on my second attempt; a promising build-up only to falter at the critical moment. I tried a third time: another failed start. I was now getting frustrated.

Another thunderous explosion rocked the streets outside, making the building and the Cloud Runner shudder again as orange light filled the interior, followed by the displeased howl of the strider. "COME ON!" I shouted desperately, banging my hand against the console.

"Oh God that thing's right outside…" Rob said, cowering a bit in his seat. I looked out the tinted canopy to see the main body of the strider move across the rimming windows near the ceiling, creaking and whistling with a slew of agitated techno screeches. I too became as afraid as Rob when I saw that silhouette traipse across the window while its legs' quaking thumps rattled the building. We were so close.

I would have descended into a state of panic like Rob had been descending into, but I would not allow that. I could not. Somehow, the peculiar warning Ben had hurdled at me before I took off with Dahlia resurfaced in my mind. Breathe it life.

Trying to not get blasted into bits had distracted me from realising its true meaning. It hit me then that I knew what to do. I just prayed that it worked.

Regrettably ignoring Rob's desperate pleas for another idea or solution, I lowered my head and closed my eyes while I gripped my yoke controls. I then proceeded to mutter softly to myself a soft Vortigese chant; "Gyiiiiiaaaai-aaaiiii-chjjeeeet… Gaaaa-cherrrrrrr-galiiiiiiiiing-cheeeeeerrrrrr… Allluuuuuuungggg…"

I deferred to this rather unusual strategy for one reason: the vortigaunts had yet to have the opportunity to see if they could start up the Cloud Runner themselves. The engineers had been extra precautious in making sure that everything inside the ship was still being finely tuned and tested prior to the invasion, robbing the vortigaunts a chance to see if they could jumpstart her with their 'magic'. It looked like I was going to act as their stand-in representative on that matter now.

I recited this same silent incantation to myself, trying to channel the Vortessence the same as I did during my sessions with the others, only this time I were acting alone with the aid of no one else. I prayed that I had already learnt enough to pull this off. I didn't have a choice now.

Breathe it life. That was the fundamentality of the Vortessence itself. It was how sapient beings could stick their hands within the lifeblood of life itself and persuade it to one's will, just as much as it was also persuading us. And, by proxy, extend life itself into whatever was able to receive it. And if recent memory served me correctly, my engine did receive a mending patch that was technically alive. It was time to kindle the vortal defibrillators.

I was unaware of it at the time, much like I had become unaware of Rob trying to get my attention (even when he started kicking my seat desperately), but small tendrils of green energy began to percolate around my forearms. In small flickers at first, but gradually they grew more intense and constant as I became more in tune with the Vortessence. My quiet chanting became confident and resounding as the vortal discharge began to accumulate around the cockpit like a charged green mist, making Rob momentarily cease his tantrum as he witnessed what was happening.

Once I felt I had built up enough vortal leverage to exert, I recanted the last line of the chance one last time as I pulled my body backwards before forcing all my weight into my hands, causing the pent-up energy to shoot through the Cloud Runner's internal systems before reaching the plasma engine. That was the final nudge the ship truly needed to come alive again.

My eyes flung open from the sudden awakening, and I saw my holographic display exploding to life, filling the cockpit with lights as the tepid hum of the failing engine now roared with overwhelming vigour and focus. My headset too had automatically synced back up with my resurrected Arwing as indicated by the message on the targeting lens over my right eye. Rob jumped with surprise to see my ship thunder to life, overwhelmed by the sounds and all the exotic cabin lights suddenly blazing around him.

In my elation, I noticed a violent wind draft kicking up throughout the warehouse thanks to the thrusters' output. The Cloud Runner was beginning to take to the skies again, and I wasn't going to keep us waiting any longer. My first move now that my ship had roused from a long sleep was to orient my gyrating cannons upward. "Hang on tight, Robert!" I ordered before slamming the fire button on my yoke with my thumb, shooting two bright green laser volleys straight up at the ceiling, blowing the entire roof of the building wide open and letting in the sunlight.

Huge chunks of metal debris fell on top of my ship, bouncing off my thick canopy and haul, simultaneously confirming that the shields weren't yet online, but all that I cared about now was that I was able to fly. I did not waste any time as I lifted my yokes, commanding the Cloud Runner to rise above the remaining walls of the building, smoothly turning rightward to face the strider head-on as I hovered over the neighbouring buildings.

The strider appeared to have nearly fallen over from the blast as it was currently rising to full height like it had almost fallen over and into the water. Squawking like electro geese, the strider thumped testily as it turned around to see what happened, only to find my floating ship confronting it directly. It beeped loudly and swayed around a bit, almost like it couldn't compute what it was looking at. I also sat in silence, daring the strider to make the first move while my targeting lens highlighted it, indicating it was locked on.

Finally, after ten seconds which felt like ten minutes, the strider's massive warp cannon was cranked upward, and the light around the strider began to get pulled inward as its weapon charged up, but I was already locked and loaded. I fired two laser blasts straight into the beast point blank before it could shoot first, blowing the tripod giant to blazing bits, spiralling into the bay while a couple of legs collapsed onto a building. "JEEZ!" Rob screamed as the strider exploded, unwittingly trying to faze through his seat by how hard he was pushing himself against it.

Now that this threat had been taken care of, I needed to rid the town of the rest. I turned my attention to the plaza down the street, where a few dropships had landed along with APCs that had just rolled up. My lens locked on every Combine asset in that area and I fired upon them immediately, unleashing my own unending barrage of laser fire that flared this section of town in a bright green glaze, which in contrast to the commandeered plaza, which was now engulfed in the flames of exploding vehicles.

My laser cannons tore through the synthetic dropships like candyfloss before they exploded, one after the other, along with the incineration of the APCs and whatever soldier had the misfortune of getting caught in the crossfire. I was also aware of more dropships flying our way, one of them carrying another strider that was folded up beneath its belly, and I made short work of them by shooting them all out of the sky in a fiery blaze of glory before they crashed down into blazing heaps of metal and techno-organic material. It was at this time our good friend the gunship decided to rear its ugly melon head again.

It had been flying around the bay in an almost possibly touting manner up until it noticed the overwhelming counterattack that was obliterating its friends. I turned my head to see it speeding towards us across the bay, firing rapidly with its heavy pulse cannon. I pulled out of the way quickly, narrowly missing its shots before my lens locked onto it, where I then launched two guided plasma volleys at it, shooting out from near the Cloud Runner's head before speeding curving rightward and meeting the gunship over the bay.

The flying synth exploded into a fiery blaze as its remains careened into the bay, creating a giant splash that walloped the seawall. All suddenly seemed significantly quieter down below now after doing all that I did. Even though I barely moved a muscle behind my controls, I still heaved with exertion and releasing stress.

Rob was utterly speechless, barely able to process what he had witnessed, especially after having the front seat to it. "Jeez…Louise…" was all that he managed to utter, so softly one could almost miss it over the humming ambience. Even though all appeared calm now, I knew my job wasn't over. Taking precautions, I cruised the Cloud Runner forward to look over the east hills and saw no more units as far as I could see, but my onboard radar had a limited radius of five miles, and it detected even more identical signatures closing in from both the east and northeast.

As much as I wished to pick off the remaining amounts of Combine soldiers that I could sense were still dwelling in the area, my Cloud Runner was direly needed elsewhere. And besides, my laser cannons would end up levelling the town far more than it already was. The Cloud Runner needed to let off steam on more befitting targets that were on their way.

"Well, this assortment of rubbish is taken care of," I sighed, allowing myself momentary relief as I hoisted my yoke controls more firmly with determination. "But I think these brutes have yet to fully learn their lesson…" I declared, motioning my arms forward, and the Cloud Runner sped off accordingly.

In seconds, I flew clear past the columns of black smoke rising from the town and was soaring clear over the arid countryside at an exhilarating speed of over two hundred miles an hour.

While my Arwing was operating wonderfully, a few systems were still waking up. The gauges showed my G-Diffusers were low, about forty percent integral and slowly climbing, which was directly affecting my shield integrity as it mirrored its stats. Weakened G-Diffusers meant that we were susceptible to intense g-forces if I flew rough and fast, but this speed was already proving to be a bit overwhelming for my only passenger sitting right behind me.

"Hu-hu―w-what are you doing? Where are we going?" he asked, anxious and confused as he was being pushed back against his seat due to mild g-forces as we soared up into the clouds.
"Just sit tight, my friend. I'm going to make sure they don't bother us again," I informed reassuringly as I banked left. My ship obeyed and we began to veer back down to earth, breaching the clouds again soon after. We were now over the hilly valley where the road to City Three passed our secluded sanctuary, where another convoy of ground vehicles and air vehicles was travelling down the road towards Red Bay.

I fired upon them on sight, guiding my cannons by merely moving my eye as the targeting lens on my headset tracked its motion. The ground units were blown to oblivion as I sped past, flying straight through the fiery plumes before soaring upward to come back around to take out the remaining dropships. Being that my G-Diffusers were still coming back online, I maintained this steady flight speed to keep ourselves from jerking around pugnaciously in our seats, so halting our momentum for a quick spin-around wasn't an option if we wanted our arms still attached to their sockets.

Our turn radius was wide, but we circled back around in less than ten seconds, and the befuddled dropships met the same fate as their ground-based peers with a fusillade of laser fire from my cannons. Their fiery remains combusted and scattered all across the land as we flew onward. I paid acute attention to my radar and saw that no more figures were present anywhere for at least five miles in all directions.

I looked outside again, briefly catching a glimpse of the Limpiadores' copper mine flying by down below while the engine's stability gauge was visible in the corner of my eye. I glanced at it briefly to see that it was simmering soundly at a comfy eighty-six percent purity. I did not want to push my newly modified systems too hard given their recent implementation, but this was an hour of critical decision-making.

I had not forgotten about the units from the northeast I detected shortly before taking off. Even though I could hardly make them out now on my holographic display, I had a confident hunch of where they may have been coming from, and City Three was in that direction. It looked like it was time to make another quick visit.

Without sparing another thought on the possible consequences of what I was planning to do next, I pulled back my yokes while deploying the wind flaps on my wings, making me and Rob jolt forward in our seats, subsequently fastening our straps even tighter as I drastically reduced our speed. While not arriving at the point of stopping, I turned the Cloud Runner around as I began configuring a few settings on my holographic dashboard. A few low, expected bangs began rumbling within the bowels of the Cloud Runner, making the ambience whir up even louder as power began to build up in the primary thrusters.

"Oh God, what's happening now?!" Rob spoke up, though it was more like he was begging.

"Really do strap in tightly this time around, Robert," I ordered, very calmly but firmly. "I have to finalise our counterattack."

"And then can we be done?" he pleaded, more so out of nausea than out of fear―although that was greatly present as well.

"That is my goal, yes," I assured, waiting with great anticipation as the meter on the display rose steadily with the engine spinning up along with it. I watched intently as the meter went up to maximum reserve before the option to redirect the reserves into the aft thrusters. Even though the G-Diffusers weren't yet operating at full capacity, they had just reached enough power to reduce G-forces to a much more tolerable level when reaching high speeds, which was just smashing. I wanted to show this world's tyrants a finer taste of Cornerian engineering.

"Oh no…we're gonna go mach-something right now, aren't we…?" Rob realised with a well-up of dread.

"Something like that," I said. I didn't exactly know what measurement he referenced, but I understood its underlying connotation involving speed.

"I'm no physicist, but I think taking off while hovering still isn't going to―"

The meter had then dinged with preparedness, and I slammed my palm on the ignition graph, which made the ship's ambience pause for a single second before the console announced "Good luck!" before the Cloud Runner shot forward across the skies to the west.

"Whoa!" Rob exclaimed jitterily as we curved over the ruined Red Bay and the entirety of the adjacent bay itself in less than four seconds, effortlessly breaking the sound barrier, and trailing a long vaporous blue tail in our wake. My hands gripped the yoke controls and fiercely fixed them forward as we bolted over the open sea, merely feet above it, generating a powerful wake that kicked up into the sky like ivory columns made of frothy water. This was a try-old trick I liked to play in my ship over vast bodies of water, but my jovial return to cheeky aerial stunts suspended itself when the radar picked up the Combine signatures closing in on us quickly.

We were cruising along the coast at incredible speed, closing in on our bogies. A third bloody convoy was now heading its way towards Red Bay on the same freeway Dejon had driven me down on our way to City Three. I made short work of them by firing several plasma missiles after I locked onto them. I circled around the fireworks show I created, taking sharper turns now that the restoring G-Diffusers were making them a comfier manoeuvre to pull off.

I never gloat when in any form of combat, but the sight I had just created brought a wide, fangy smirk to my muzzle. I could understand why Falco got as much enjoyment as he did when blowing his enemies into oblivion. I did not float around this area for long; I had places to be and bases to obliterate.

I continued on our merry way in the same direction that the caravan had come from. I could remember quite vividly visiting a certain location outside the city that housed, maintained, and supplied the Combine's synthetic aerial arsenal when stealing a certain component for Gus. I found it the perfect place to make my statement.

"H-Hey, where are we going?" Rob asked, reclaiming his voice after bearing witness to all of that recent excitement.

"Have you ever been to City Three, Rob?" I asked, looking over at him briefly, finding him pressing his arms against the rounded rear of the cockpit, and his weary expression did not improve much when I confronted him with the question.

"No," he shook his head uneasily. "And I've made a point never to."

I then looked ahead again after receiving my answer. "Well, I hope you don't mind if we buzzed through it quickly…"

City Three's citadel had been a distant, hazy eyesore for the majority of the time I had been reacquainting myself with my darling space fighter, but the menacing monolith and the city layout around its base were quickly approaching us at a rapid pace as I soared over the ruined freeway. I had not been informed of the Combine installing any kind of air defences in any of their fortified territories or cities, so I had little reason to suspect I would be greeted with any ground-to-air deterrents. The Combine clearly got a little too comfy having nobody challenging them from the skies after having dominion over it for twenty Earth years.

It was avery surreal experience being back here in this dreadful city, but the fact that I was now soaring above it in my Cloud Runner almost made it feel like a dream that I would wake up from at any moment. Today had been a nightmare so far, so a part of me almost wished it was. Then again, the part of me that knew better was happy it wasn't, otherwise I wouldn't do what I was moments away from doing.

Having our dear Falco on my mind for the last moment, I ended up playing into a philosophy of his that had been creeping into my mind, one he had told me after escorting the Galloping Goldfish together―a mission that felt like a lifetime ago. Either we play things safe for the broader public, or we instead give them a great show. I was beginning to lean into the latter option on this flight.

I was flying far too fast to properly get a reading of the minds of all the citizens down below watching me soar closely over their rooves with a bright blue streak tailing me, but I imagined it was unlike anything they had ever seen in some time. I did three studious laps total around the city, each lasting more than fifteen seconds, and I focused on a different location of high strategic value. The first was the airfield and all of its assets that were kept there. Rows of gunships and dropships sitting vertically in their maintenance bays were still there, along with the converted hangers storing weaponry and transport, and the landing pad that stationed inactive hunter choppers.

Before I made any move on my main target, I stared long and hard at the citadel standing near the heart of the city. It towered over the whole city at a staggering eight hundred metres high, extending sets of cables bunched in the dozens all throughout the city like a sinister web. Despite its oppressive stature from this altitude, my eyes were fixed on the very top of the Combine tower.

I could make out three angular spires situated at its peak; this was part of the citadel's dark fusion reactor. This was the focus point that opened up gateways between universes. The only way to get back home was through that, sitting right there on top of the monolith. I now had reclaimed the means to get me up there in no time, but it was not time yet. Now was the time for retribution.

After finishing my third lap around the rim of the city, I honed in on my main target: the Combine airbase. My plan to eradicate it unfortunately relied on a piece of weaponry I was somewhat hesitant to use. It was one of four experimental smart bombs I had onboard my small bomber bay. Since my Cloud Runner was a prototype for a new Arwing variant, it had been equipped with some experimental weaponry as well.

A product of Slippy's own bored, tactically genius mind, the smart bombs in my ship were designed to detonate on a given target with the standard ballistic magnitude, but with the bonus of bursting into different equally explosive components upon combustion, carpeting the target area in a firestorm of that was designed to blow up everything that it could reach. Slippy had christened it the 'Blister Bomb'; a name as befitting as it was gross, and I knew exactly where I was going to drop a couple.

I was coming in hot straight at the airfield, running nearly parallel to it like I was coming in for a landing on its old cracked tarmac. I circled a few settings on my holographic display before receiving the message that the bomber bay was primed and ready for deployment as we approached the airfield, now only four hundred metres away and closing in fast. A vengeful scowl furrowed on my brow as my thumb hovered over the red button on the side of my yoke.

"No one attacks my home…" I growled lowly and intimately to myself, seconds before clicking the button and dropping my payload. Two flaring pink streaks then shot out from the underside of the Cloud Runner's head for two different sides of the airfield. It almost felt like a second sun had formed just behind us as we flew over and past the airfield, igniting the whole area in a flash of orange light that surged towards us as the ensuing explosions tried to catch up with all of the bombs' components scattering everywhere, turning the Combine's aerial base into a blazing inferno that consumed everything around it, obliterating everything within the compound while streaks of flaming debris shot up into the air.

The spectacle was large enough to be seen for miles and miles around, which was why I was certain that everyone in the city could see it. And if they couldn't, they would certainly feel it. I feared for the humans closer to the blast radius, but there was nothing I could do from where I was. I had to pray that everyone fled in time before the large chunks of fiery debris would start raining down everywhere.

Despite the risks of my strategy, this needed to be done. Most of the Combine's aerial forces in the region were stationed at that very airfield. I could not risk having any more coming to our home now that it had been found out by the Combine. I had to make sure no more would come to us, and I had to make them pay for daring to cross us. To cross me. They honestly got a bargain by only receiving what I had just given them.

Being strategic enough to know that it wouldn't be a wise thing to hang around after decimating a highly invaluable plot of Combine land, I fired up my boosters once more and shot across the ocean just north of the base, breaking the sound barrier as I went along. However, one could hardly tell thanks to the power of the nifty G-Diffusers that were now essentially fully restored, save for a few turbulent bumps here and there.

I maintained our course for about seven miles out to sea before I began to pull my yokes backwards gradually, decelerating the plasma output and switching on autopilot for the time being. I laid my head back on my headrest, plopping my hands down on my lap with a tired sigh. "I could use a proper holiday…" I muttered under my breath to myself.

I had not forgotten about my only passenger, so I turned around to meet his bleary gaze after giving myself a moment. "Are you all right, Rob?" I asked, calm and tranquil with post-attack respite. Rob's eyes were still wide and his body still stiff after being pushed back into his seat so often, but his tense shoulders were humouring the idea of relaxing, so he dared to do so now that I appeared calm.

"Uh…wow," he groaned a bit with lapsing composure, slurring his words almost like how Mofuni did whenever he was acting up. "I mean…what the… Wow…just… I-I can't decide if this is the worst or best day of my life."

I chuffed a bit from his blunt sense of humour, reaching my arm around my seat. "Well, how are you feeling right now? You're looking a little green in the face," I noted with a giggle, trying to show him that we could relax now.

"I, uhm… I guess I am a little queasy…" Rob said, almost like he was trying to act cool for the sake of looking cool, making his own attempt to make light of such a dreadful experience. We both looked at each other for a quiet moment, left with nothing but the slight jitter of the console, only for us to begin laughing at the same time as all the pent-up excitement, both good and bad, finally got released in this moment of repose. This moment felt particularly magical for whatever reason.

Before tears ensued by hearty laughter could well up in Rob's eyes, he subdued himself relatively quickly before his face fell quite sickly as if it were triggered on command. "No seriously, I don't think I can hold it in. I'm gonna blow chunks all over your floor…"

"Oh dear," I jerked a bit, scrambling to look for a solution to his mounting problem. With the memory of Falco still floating around in my head, I suddenly remembered something he gave me shortly after I received the Cloud Runner for trial running. Stuffed away by my seat was a pack of complimentary 'barf bags'. Falco figured since I insisted on the passenger-carrying feature of my prototype, I should have these on hand in case some of my passengers got motion sick should the G-Diffusers cut out. They had our little red logo on it too. There was not a better time to use them than now.

Fishing them out, I tossed one over at Rob, who was clutching his stomach uncomfortably. Rob quickly opened it up and wasted no time; he vomited straight into the bag, coughing hard and painfully as all contents in his stomach evacuated. I just watched him with great pity.

"Oh…" he moaned after he finished. "I take it back… I don't wanna fly this thing any more. You can keep it. I'm not a good flyer as it turns out…"

I smirked hesitantly. "Forgive me, Rob, the G-Diffusers were not operational yet."

"The hell is a G-Diffuser…?" Rob groaned blearily. I was about to answer, but I held my tongue.

"Never you mind, Rob," I quelled. "Just hang tight for another minute or two. We just need to lose our scent so the Combine don't follow us when we head back home."

Rob coughed a few more times before zipping up his upchucked remains while I quietly cranked up the AC―both to soothe Rob and myself as well as to rid the rancid smell before it could drift up to the front of the cockpit. We both sat in silence for another lengthy moment as we just watched the endless ocean pass us by before Rob eventually asked the greatest question that no one yet had the answer to. Not in this ship, or those who remained back on land.

"What then?"

It took me another moment to answer. "I guess we'll both find out…"